One of the most important things your business can do to make sure that your potential clients can find you when searching locally for your products or services is to claim your Google places listing.
At one time, your company’s listing would have been called Google Places, but this has since been renamed Google My Business. The benefits, though, of having your local business and contact information listed on Google still remain and the process of claiming the listing is easy.
You may already be listed because your name features on Google Maps, and some of your customers may have already told the search engine that your business is located where you are.
All you need to do is claim the listing. Registering a new listing is also pretty straight-forward. Follow the instructions on the Google My Business page, and you will have your listing usually within about 24 hours.
So maybe you have claimed your Google places listing or acquired a new one, but there may be a minor issue that you might encounter. If your phone number, business name, business hours, location, or anything else concerning your company has changed, it needs to be reflected in your listing.
Making updates is critical because it ensures that your customers can look up your business on Google Maps or the search engine itself and find the correct information.
If they look up your business hours or location and eventually find out (upon arriving at that location) that the information is wrong, they will be greatly disappointed and likely turn to your competition.
You can edit your company’s information through your Google dashboard (previously accessible as Google Places), but how long does it take for Google to update the changes?
Typical Update Times for Google Places Edits
When it comes to making the changes and updates (words, photos, videos, etc.) to your Google places listing, the type of updates business owners create will determine how long it takes for them to take effect and be visible to all of your potential clients who are looking for you through a Google search.
Here are the typical turnaround times for changes in your business listing:
The following will usually update on Google Places in a few days:
• Newly verified listings on Google places (even though it reads “Active” in your dashboard) including newly verified bulk uploads (and any attributes, as noted below) made by the business owner
• Business titles
• Addresses
• Phone numbers
• Website URLs
• Pin marker moves
• Descriptions
• Hours
• Categories
These will update in about a week for your Google Places:
• Photos
• Videos
Finally, these will typically take several weeks to resolve in search results and other places:
• Merged listings
• Duplicate listings
How Does This Affect My Company on Google?
The main goal of content marketing for your company is focusing on reaching more clients through search engines and driving traffic to your website.
When you invest in things like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you are working diligently on gaining the trust of customers and Google.
“Why is Google for my business even necessary?”
Places like Google Maps and other locations where your website is listed need to be updated so that the search engine will realize you are trustworthy, consistent, and worthy of being in the top search results.
Clients will also be impressed when they see that your local SEO strategy is a focus.
“How do clients know my business in Google and other search engines has been optimized?”
When information for my business on Google is available, why worry about it?”
Because the listings are updated, they will understand that you care about their needs as your potential clients including knowing when you are open and your contact information.
If you are looking for more information about Google Places, local SEO, updates for your listings, and how all of this affects your company, contact 51Blocks.
We can help ensure that your places listing, Google Maps, and website’s Search Engine Optimization are ready for any search engine to crawl so you can start ranking higher in the results. A couple of places higher in the rankings than your competition may mean you get a call when they don’t!
